WP, or WP8 as it is right now, is still lacking in third party apps and official apps from various companies. Which makes no sense.

Windows 7 has tons of software that canbe easily imported as well as Windows 8. Just say something!!! and Windows 8 is freaking almost the same interface?

Aso hello? Xbox?

I mean, MS should have on par or more support and apps than Android and Apple)lol MAcbook.) yet it's the exact opposite. How does that make sense? What exaclty is MS trying to do? or have they just not though of it? They have the potential to be a force to be reckoned with and are not using it.

At about 150,000 Apps 2 years in they are on par to where Apple and Android were at 2 years in. App support is coming. As an example, just last night I was looking through the App store and came upon a Philly.com App released by the Philadelphia Inquirer/Daily News just about a week ago. That was the last thing I expected to find. And it's quite nice too.

I would hope MS is working hard at getting OS up to speed. The apps will come when the people come. It is still a very young OS and it will take time to bring enough followers to make developers take notice. I'm hoping they are burning the midnight oil to resolve the finer details of OS. If not, they will continue to have issues bringing in developers and I'm hoping they see it that way.

If you see web statistics Windows 8 is bigger than Android Tablet and growing close to the iPad, and is just two month old.
It's a matter of time for apps to come to Windows 8 and then to Windows Phone 8.
Devs need to see a lot of devices out there that can finance the app cost, then have to learn a new platform, and then develop the apps, takes a little time.

At about 150,000 Apps 2 years in they are on par to where Apple and Android were at 2 years in. App support is coming. As an example, just last night I was looking through the App store and came upon a Philly.com App released by the Philadelphia Inquirer/Daily News just about a week ago. That was the last thing I expected to find. And it's quite nice too.

Be patient and stop your whining.

An ignorant comparison and there is no whining.

Windows already has apps that it has distributed to portable devices and Pc's (excluding WP8) and the way apps on WP8 is set-up, most of the apps can literally be moved and they work mostly the same. There is no excuse for MS to laucnh something with this listtle support. They never did it before, so why is it an issue now?

If you see web statistics Windows 8 is bigger than Android Tablet and growing close to the iPad, and is just two month old.
It's a matter of time for apps to come to Windows 8 and then to Windows Phone 8.
Devs need to see a lot of devices out there that can finance the app cost, then have to learn a new platform, and then develop the apps, takes a little time.

Copying apps over and developing on an integrated interface that is virtually the same thing takes time?

Windows already has apps that it has distributed to portable devices and Pc's (excluding WP8) and the way apps on WP8 is set-up, most of the apps can literally be moved and they work mostly the same. There is no excuse for MS to laucnh something with this listtle support. They never did it before, so why is it an issue now?

You clearly don't know what the frak you're talking about so I'll leave you to your whining.

Don't listen to those who say "stop whining". It's a problem and it has to be addressed, people need to stop comparing Windows Phone with the PAST of other platforms unless they believe Windows Phone to be irrelevant or sub-par in the present, in which case you probably shouldn't talk anyway.

Originally Posted by Ratchet clank

Which makes no sense.

It makes a lot of sense, companies prioritise and Windows Phone is simply not on the radar for most. Microsoft can't force companies to create anything, and it's not a one-click procedure to go from Windows 8 app to Windows Phone 8 app. Simply sharing a similar design language (and even then, you'll notice that Windows & Windows Phone have very different layout guidelines) is but a small convenience in the grand scheme of development.

The explanation is simple. Simpler than many seem to think: you have to pay a guy to code the app. If it looks like the money spend on the guy versus the customers that will use the app are in no good relation the guy simply won't be paied to code the app. Companies, big or small, stop to care about idealism, user interfaces, fanbase enthusiasm and things like that if there's no profit.

Yep. Someone needs to make enough money to make coding the app worthwhile.

Google's recent anti-competitive stuff vis-à-vis ActiveSync and YouTube underscores this. Even the company with the carefully crafted "we're just so nice and give away free stuff to make the world a better place" PR has used availability (or lack thereof) to get revenue.

Windows Phone apps work when the developer expects to get a return. If they don't expect a return, they won't build, simple as that. Many of them are short-sighted in this regard, but hey, when you choose the #3/#4 platform, you need to get used to this.

1% market penetration after 2.5 years. There's your excuse, and a pretty good one at that.

Not exactly...there is no excuse for Microsoft. It is capable of throwing serious money behind WP8 and in the process entice many 3rd party developers and companies to support the platform. In fact, MS could just develop and maintain the app itself and ask the owner for branding rights (e.g. Facebook, the YouTube mess, etc.) It might sound unreasonable for MS to have to do this for dozens if not hundreds of apps, but the fact of the matter is that WP is a late entrant to a mature market, one with very well established competitors. You're setting yourself up to fight an up-hill battle, and a very pricey one at that so why not spend the full amount?

That said, MS doesn't have to nursery feed its platform for very long. Yes, Windows Phone will never dominate the smartphone market, and it'd be miraculously lucky to eat a sizeable chunk (e.g. 20%+). However, this is a rapidly growing market, one where commanding even 5-10% could mean maintaining a user base of 20-30 million, if not more. In real terms that is a big and clearly profitable market. Of course, it is not the most profitable, it may not be entirely efficient (in terms of resource management) to support it, but it's not a loss maker by any means.

This is the worst advise ever about the app situation on Windows Phone. If no one complains, developers won't make the apps. If developers see complaints about apps, they will see there is demand. No complaints = no demand = no apps.

People need to bombard the app developers with requests to bring their apps on to Windows Phone. In the time it takes to argue over the subject on forums you can fire off a bunch of emails to various devs.

People need to bombard the app developers with requests to bring their apps on to Windows Phone. In the time it takes to argue over the subject on forums you can fire off a bunch of emails to various devs.

But you need a larger user base to persuade those developers. And you need developers making apps to get a larger user base. It's frustrating at times when you ask developers to give you a WP app and never see anything. I hope a day comes when we don't have to wonder if WP will be supported for a service we enjoy.

Windows Phone is around 3% of the smartphone userbase, which will hit about 1 billion new sales in 2013.

That means that in 2013, assuming MS holds its current market share, there will be 30 million Windows Phones sold.

For comparison's sake, that's more phones sold than the adult (age 18+) population of England, Canada, Spain, California, or the New York City metropolitan area.

If it was a city, it would be the world's largest.

When you're looking at marketplaces in the hundreds of millions (or billions) of users, market share is pretty ridiculous as a measure of success. In fact, the hyperfocus by most developers on the Apple section of the market (12%) or the Android section of the market (60%) can crowd those places and result in missed opportunities elsewhere.

Refusing to develop apps for Windows Phone will be like refusing to do business in Canada or New York or wherever because "more people live elsewhere." Pretty silly.

Finally, consider that the smallest of the major platforms will sell more units in 2013 than all the computer manufacturers did during the home computer boom of the early 1980s -- and that boom fostered hundreds of thousands of titles and built colossal firms that stood the test of time, like Microsoft, Apple, Electronic Arts, Adobe, Logitech, etc.

When an interesting app comes out, we all need to buy it, rather than moan about the cost, or the fact it's not as pretty as the iOS version. The developers that spend some time on WP need to be encouraged, the more that make money on the platform,mtge more attention

Copying apps over and developing on an integrated interface that is virtually the same thing takes time?

Are you as ignorant as you are crass? W8 and WP8 are not virtually the same platform to develop for. They may appear similar in some regards as far as the interface, but underneath are 2 totally different beasts. And like one other poster said, with o er 150,000 apps 2 years in, they are right on track with the big 2 in they're first 2years....so yeah....quit ur whining.

Don't listen to those who say "stop whining". It's a problem and it has to be addressed, people need to stop comparing Windows Phone with the PAST of other platforms unless they believe Windows Phone to be irrelevant or sub-par in the present, in which case you probably shouldn't talk anyway.

It makes a lot of sense, companies prioritise and Windows Phone is simply not on the radar for most. Microsoft can't force companies to create anything, and it's not a one-click procedure to go from Windows 8 app to Windows Phone 8 app. Simply sharing a similar design language (and even then, you'll notice that Windows & Windows Phone have very different layout guidelines) is but a small convenience in the grand scheme of development.

This is the worst advise ever about the app situation on Windows Phone. If no one complains, developers won't make the apps. If developers see complaints about apps, they will see there is demand. No complaints = no demand = no apps.

You have that almost right. Complaining and whining do nothing. Contacting a developer and asking to support the platform (while everyone else does the same thing) does help...Hrere's an example....http://forums.windowscentral.com/mar...th-update.html... Honey and vinegar, my friends...honey and vinegar....and being productive in ur disappointment, not just complaining about it.

When an interesting app comes out, we all need to buy it, rather than moan about the cost, or the fact it's not as pretty as the iOS version. The developers that spend some time on WP need to be encouraged, the more that make money on the platform,mtge more attention